Wildlife Corridors: A Key Focus for the Mountain
Wildlife Corridors: A Key Focus for the Mountain One night in 2009, a black bear was spotted by five different people near Adobe Creek in Petaluma. After being chased by a helicopter, the bear followed that creek back up and over Sonoma Mountain to return to Napa County [...]
From SDC Beginnings to Now
From SDC Beginnings to Now Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) is the oldest facility in California established specifically to serve individuals with developmental disabilities. It opened to 148 residents on November 24, 1891, culminating a ten-year project by two northern California women who had children with developmental disabilities, [...]
Can We Protect Large Lands?
Can We Protect Large Lands? What does it take to build the kind of trail Bill Kortum envisions for his grandson? Mainly, it takes access to land and permission of property owners. The more property owners, the most challenging it may be to assemble a pathway for [...]
My Grandson Hikes the Mountain
My Grandson Hikes the Mountain The scene is October 2020 and young Willie and a friend have started on a fifteen-mile hike from downtown Petaluma with the goal of reaching Glen Ellen by crossing Sonoma Mountain. His imagination has been stirred by his reading of Jack London, [...]
Coalition Looks at SDC
Coalition Looks at SDC It’s no secret that the Sonoma Developmental Center – one of only four such large residential care facilities left in the state – may close down in the not too distant future. SDC’s website shows 523 clients now live there; the state has [...]
Development Guidelines Now Cover More Land
Development Guidelines Cover More Land For over a decade the slopes of Sonoma and Taylor mountains have been covered, not only in homes and fields and woods, but by a set of development guidelines that restrict the visual impact of new residences. IN 2011 the county Board [...]
Farmers Still Struggle; Some Succeed
Farmers Still Struggle; Some Succeed Consuming and serving local food has become the latest hallmark of good living. Here on Sonoma Mountain many of us take pride in knowing the names of the farmers we buy from. Growing numbers of consumers belong to CSAs (community supported agriculture [...]
Permits? What Permits? We don’t need no stinking permits . . .
Permits? What Permits? We don’t need no stinking permits . . . Have you recently heard the roar of a tractor or the clanking of a cement mixer in a nearby wooded area where you know no houses exist? Do you suspect that something is going on [...]
Careful How You Build That Fence, Podner
Careful How You Build That Fence, Podner Home owners, farmers and wild life cohabitate on our mountain, but not always congenially.Old barbed wire fences, new deer fences, wooden fences built for privacy: all of these can have negative and often lethal effects on wild animals. Animals need [...]
Pioneers Struggled Here, Too
Pioneers Struggled Here, Too When Jose Altimira traveled through Sonoma Valley in 1823, looking for a place to found a mission, he described Sonoma Mountain as “well-covered with trees fit for building a pueblo.” There were plenty of flat places on the valley floor to grow crops; [...]
Jack London (the Park) Turns 50…and Needs a Hand.
Jack London (the Park) Turns 50… and Needs a Hand. During the summer of 2010 Jack London State Historic Park hosted several birthday events. Jack, had he been there, would have enjoyed them all. Organized and led by park neighbor and volunteer activist Elisa Stancil of the [...]
Recreation on the Mountain
Recreation on the Mountain Recreation on the mountain can include wine tasting, visiting Morton’s Warm Springs, attending a retreat at the Westerbeke Ranch, or, as most visitors and residents do, heading to a park, principally Jack London State Historic Park. To reach Jack London State Historic Park, [...]
Sonoma Mountain – The Book!
Where the World Begins: Sonoma Mountain Stories and Images draws you into our inspiring natural treasure at the heart of southern Sonoma County. Local Bestseller, IPPY Award 2020. Two purchasing choices below:
